SAN FRANCISCO — “Kabuki Cabaret: Stories Past and Present” will be presented at three Bay Area venues in three days.

Blending noh and kyogen dramatic performance with thundering taiko, under a cascade of contemporary koto steeped with jazz, veterans on the avante garde music and theater scene, writer/actor Brenda Wong Aoki and her long-time creative partner, bassist/composer Mark Izu, a seminal force on the Asian American jazz scene, bring together the best of the best:

* Grammy-nominated multi-percussionist Dr. Anthony Brown;

* Natori koto master Shoko Hikage;

* 2010 best Latin jazz flutist Mas Koga;

* Vocalist Moy Eng;

* Janet Koike with PJ Hirabayashi on taiko;

* Special guest performer, Sri Lankan writer Nayomi Munaweera.

This all-new program features “The Soul of the Great Bell,” a traditional Chinese legend of a mighty emperor and the ghost of a young girl imprisoned in a temple bell; and “Travelings,” musical musings on real hauntings in Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and San Francisco Bay.

Munaweera will be performing a short piece titled “Exorcism,” which recounts the family tale of her father’s unexplained childhood paralysis. Set in a remote Sri Lankan village during the 1950s, the story explores the relationship between illness, culture and the mysterious forces summoned to cure the child.

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